Peter Lonard joked that it has now taken his caddie, Matthew Tritton, two months to club him right. Lonard took what he termed a "knockdown 5-iron to 193 yards," made the perfect swing and scored a hole-in-one. It followed a birdie at No. 2 and moved him to 3-under after three holes. Lonard fashioned a 5-under 66 thanks to his ace.

Raider Nation: With a clothing contract that requires him to wear NFL teams' colors every competitive round, Ben Curtis has 32 choices. Yesterday, the 2003 British Open champ made the gutsy call of wearing Raiders gear in the county that most loathes the Silver and Black. It could have gotten ugly, but it didn't. "I didn't get heckled because there wasn't anybody following us," said Curtis, who played with Frank Lickliter and K.J. Choi. He said he was saving his Chargers blue and gold for the weekend, and he might get there after a 3-under 69 on the North.

Surf and turf: Three years ago, Tom Lehman and his family moved into a summer house in Del Mar, two blocks from the beach. With their other home in Scottsdale, Ariz., they're like most other 'Zonies, making their way to the coast whenever the desert gets too hot. So, too, do their family and friends. "It's so great here, everybody wants to come," Lehman said. "We love having them, as long as they don't drag sand into the house. My wife (Melissa) will kill you."

Just his opinion: San Diego native Scott Simpson, the 1998 Buick champion, gave an endorsement to the proposal to renovate Torrey North. "They've added tees, and it's better than it used to be, but I'd love to see it rebuilt myself. I guess a lot of people don't, but if the money's available, sure, why not? Do the same thing they did on South as far as move some of the greens closer to cliffs. I like what they did on the South. I think the course is tougher, obviously, but I think it's prettier, too. . . . I would keep the North shorter. You can keep it shorter and still make it tough and challenging."

BIRDIE

Considering all the rain that fell here recently, the courses were in outstanding shape. There was the usual grumbling about the bumpy poa annua greens, but how bad can it be if six guys shoot 65 or better on the North Course?

BOGEY

Is it too much to ask that the on-course scoreboards work? As late as
3 p.m., when the first round was ending, the boards still listed players on the 12th hole who had finished at least an hour earlier. And it's not like no one knew when the tournament was coming; the schedule was announced months ago.

QUOTABLE

"I'd much rather be in bed right now."

TIGER WOODS, who was still recovering from the flu, which kept him in bed for most of the past week